GRANVILLE, Ohio — There’s something fitting about housing the Licking Park District offices in
the former county poorhouse. That’s exactly where the parks were headed until Licking County voters
approved a 0.25-mill levy in March 2012.

Now with a new director and a new revenue stream guaranteed for at least five years, many hope
the district comes to emulate that 150-year-old structure in another way — sturdiness.

“I can’t wait to get started,” said Director Bob Williams, who took the job on March 18. “There’s
an energy right now. People are raring to go to make it successful.”

Much of that energy emanates from Williams himself. He was so excited to get started, in fact,
that the former operations manager for the Chester County parks system in southeastern Pennsylvania
moved his wife, Beth, and their border collie, Tanner, into a tent at Camp O’Bannon in Newark for a
couple of weeks while they searched for a new home.

Everywhere he looks, he says, there’s potential. “This is the greatest job in the world,” he
said. “Why wouldn’t you want to come to work every day?”

Williams has reason for optimism. Last year’s parks levy was the first to pass in the district’s
29-year history. Six unsuccessful attempts preceded it. The levy, which costs county residents
about $8 per year per $100,000 of home value, will generate about $900,000 a year for the next five
years.

The first of the biannual tax checks, in the amount of $439,843.84, arrived at the end of March.
A priority list on how to spend it will be discussed at the board meeting this month.

Before the levy passed, the district was funded by the county, about $500,000 annually. Then the
recession hit five years ago, and the funding dropped by half.

The district went without programming, or even a director, for the past two years.

“When the county revenues took a hit, they had to take a corresponding hit,” said Licking County
Commissioner Tim Bubb. “They became a non-mandated expense. We did the best we could do to keep the
grass mowed and the doors open.”

With the infusion of new money, the sights are set higher.

“Our goal is to touch every life in Licking County so that in four years, when it comes time to
renew the levy, they’ll have realized — and experienced — the benefits of the park system and there
will be no doubt they want to renew us,” said Steve Holloway, President of the Licking Park
District Board.

The district covers three primary parks: the 316-acre Infirmary Mound Park near Granville, where
the district’s office is located; the 210-acre Lobdell Reserve near Alexandria; and the 575-acre
Taft Reserve, just south of Newark, and its nearby Kraner Nature Center, which is currently staffed
only on weekends and managed by Ohio Nature Education, a nonprofit volunteer organization that
provides outdoor outreach programs primarily to schools.

Those three parks feature a championship-caliber disc-golf course, a 5-acre fishing pond, about
25 acres of walking/biking trails and another 25 miles of bridle trails.

Additionally, the district manages much of the popular T.J. Evans bike trail that runs from
Johnstown to Newark. High on the new to-do list is a repaving schedule for the trail, which hasn’t
seen much new asphalt since 2003.

The ongoing development of a community dog park, being built at Infirmary Mound Park largely
with volunteer fundraising and labor, as well as some needed work on shelters and playground
equipment will take a chunk of first-round money, as well.

Reinstating programming, as well as the printing of a quarterly programming guide, won’t be far
behind.

In all, the district manages about 1,600 acres in 13 different clusters, most of which are
undeveloped, with three full-time employees and one part-timer.

By comparison, the Franklin County Metro Parks manages 27,000 acres and operates on a budget of
about $22 million annually with about 250 full- and part-time staff members.

It gives Williams something to shoot for. He said he realizes there’s a blank canvas in front of
him. However, blank canvases don’t attract much attention. They need some brushstrokes. That was
evidenced last week, when visits to both Infirmary Mound and Taft Reserve on consecutive beautiful
spring weekday afternoons found both parks empty.

“The cliche is that we’re a best-kept secret,” Williams said. “But we don’t want to be a secret.
We need to tell our story. And we will, with more signage, more educational programming, more
speaking engagements.

“Our goal is to always be moving forward and show the public that has entrusted us with this
money that we didn’t just sit on it. We did what we said we would do.”